#1Wilfred Rhodes
1877–1973Cricket player of England. (1877-1973)
Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Wilfred Rhodes, the cricket player of England, is the most widely known, written about in 14 languages. Second place goes to the English cricket player George Hirst, third to Allen Hill. In the Victorian era, 5 were born, the most of any period. Over 130 years of births, the list goes from Allen Hill (1843) to Richard Reed (1973).
Set against the usual town, athletes come out 1.7 times as common.
The usual town: the share across everyone listed across UK towns. Tap a field to see its people.
The three best known are all athletes.
#1Cricket player of England. (1877-1973)
#2
#3The 1870s top the chart, with 2 births in the decade.
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
4 more, from 1855 to 1973.

No one matches both filters.
Close by, Huddersfield counts 325 famous people, the most of its neighbours.
Wilfred Rhodes (cricket player of England. (1877-1973)) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 14 languages. Next come George Hirst and Allen Hill.
7 people born in Kirkheaton have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace.
Among its famous people, athletes: 6 of the 7. That is 86% of the town’s list, against 49% across UK towns.
Allen Hill, born in 1843. The youngest on the list was born in 1973.
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Kirkheaton’s built-up area (the ONS 2022 boundary), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a bigger area (“London”), another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are placed in the town by the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary (Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0). Ranked by how many Wikipedia languages cover each person. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across UK towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.